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Abstract

1. The overarching goal of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) for this project has been to enhance the Chesapeake Bay’s oyster population. In Virginia, CBF is working with partners to focus restoration efforts on the Lafayette River in order to bring the river’s biomass and reef substrate to a threshold level that will show a systemic response in terms of enhanced spatset. Portions of their grant have funded the hydrodynamic modeling of the Lafayette River recently performed and herein reported. 2. VIMS personnel have modified its existing three-dimensional hydrodynamic model of the Lafayette/Elizabeth/James Rivers to conduct larval connectivity simulations. The model grid was revised to represent the small creeks and tributaries with the Lafayette and to run the model using multiple larval input locations selected by CBF personnel. A total of eleven (11) locations within the Lafayette were selected as larvae release sites for the simulations. These eleven simulations comprised a “set” of simulations, and there were separate sets executed for both “with local runoff” and “without local runoff” cases. 3. For both sets of simulations performed, the spatial distributions of larvae present after 21 days (including a 14-day planktonic larval phase and a 7-day settlement phase) showed that larvae have the potential to settle on these selected release sites. Because the model simulations were conducted under specific hydrodynamic conditions, any extrapolation of the results should be confirmed through field measurements in the Lafayette River.